


A Closed Door

by LynMars79



Series: Tales of the Seventh Era [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Ala Mhigo, Attempted closure, Gen, Mentions of past child abuse, Stormblood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 14:37:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18693526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynMars79/pseuds/LynMars79
Summary: A short scene that came to mind, about having opportunity to deal with backstory issues.





	A Closed Door

Arenvald stood before the door and wondered again what he was doing here.

“Well are you going to knock or not?” Fordola’s voice sounded sharp, cutting through the humid afternoon air.

“This is a bad idea,” he replied. He felt a bead of sweat run down his spine, under his shirt and armor. He desperately wanted to scratch his back, but that wasn’t happening in his platemail.

He really should have left the bloody armor back at the barracks.

“Probably,” Fordola agreed. She was leaning against a wall across the alley and a few yalms down, arms crossed, and trying to look somewhere between bored and annoyed. For a moment, he wondered if she was agreeing about his thoughts on his armor; that wouldn’t be unusual for her overly-sensitive Resonance. “But you’ve been hemming and hawing about this for nearly a moon now and I’m sick of it. So make a decision.”

No; still on the original topic, then. “Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow.”

Fordola shook her head. “Either do this now, or shut up about it for good.”

“It isn’t that easy--”

“Isn’t it?”

He frowned and glanced at her. “Well what about you? Have you seen yours?”

She looked away. “This isn’t about me. This is your issue.”

Arenvald only grunted an acknowledgement.

“Mayhap later,” she continued idly. “After you’ve had the stones to see yours.”

“Not fair,” he grumbled. He heard nothing on the other side of the door. Part of him wondered if they were mistaken, if the small flat was now empty or belonged to someone else--but Fordola had been thorough in her questioning. Apparently, even before she had been captured by the Alliance; being a member of the Scions, and active in Gyr Abania during the rebellion, had meant Arenvald had been worth some measure of investigation by the Imperials.

“I don’t have a lot of free time, you know,” Fordola said. “You’re wasting it.”

Arenvald turned away from the door. “All right then, let’s go do something else,” he said. “To make your unrestricted period worth it, eh?”

She rolled her eyes and sighed as she pushed off the wall. “Fine. Whatever.”

They walked out of the alleyway. “Maybe next time,” she said quietly, as the clatter of a nearby cart nearly drowned out her softer-than-usual words.

“Maybe,” he agreed. “Did you want to tr--”

“No,” she stated emphatically. “And you try to swing us by that old block again, I swear I will break your arms.”

Arenvald laughed. “All right, fine. Let’s go to the market instead, then, and see what’s new.”

As they left the narrow little side street, he couldn’t help a glimpse back at his old childhood home. It was strange how small it seemed now, compared to his memories. He wondered if his mother would even want to see him. Had the end to the occupation eased her troubled mind in any way?

Did he truly hope so, or did he want vindication as to her violent nature?

_The knife came at his face as she practically sat on him, nails digging into his skin to hold him still, her voice rising in a shriek to match his..._

He wondered how much he truly wanted to see his mother, and how much of this was personal curiosity and an attempt at some sort of closure--especially as he tried to get Fordola to reconcile with her own mother, which his reluctant primal-slaying partner had turned around to challenge him as to his own history.

Arenvald paid attention to Fordola again, responding to something she was saying about merchant price gouging, putting thoughts of estranged mothers aside for now.

He wasn’t going to answer those questions today. Neither of them would; he supposed that meant they just weren’t ready yet.

Maybe someday.

**Author's Note:**

> Arenvald has such puppy vibes, in a good way. But with the liberation of Ala Mhigo, would he try to see his mother? Despite what she did? Families are complicated, especially when there's that terrible hope of "maybe things will be better now...?" It's probably a bad idea, but he's the kind of guy that would give it at least a try, once his nerve's up to facing her again.
> 
> Fordola isn't much better off, given how she left her mother.


End file.
